UnitingCare Australia Welcomes Leadership on Addressing Inequality

UnitingCare Australia has welcomed the ALP’s leadership on the issue of inequality with the release this week of the report Growing Together - Labor’s agenda for tackling inequality.

National Director Lin Hatfield Dodds says the report is challenging and constructive and lays a strong platform for future policy discussion and development.

“We commend Shadow Minister Jenny Macklin and the ALP for this substantive work.

“Inequality and intergenerational disadvantage are increasing and our national responses must continually be reviewed and renewed.

“UnitingCare Australia strongly supports the focus on jobs, job creation and transition to work strategies, identified in the report as fundamental responses.

“The recognition of the multi-dimensions of the policy responses required including parent education strategies, early childhood education, work and family balance, and strong communities, is also encouraging.

“An adequate safety net, including further investigating the appropriateness of the levels of Newstart Allowance, as flagged in the report, is also key to supporting people back into paid work.

“Good social policy and good economic policy go hand in hand. Sustainable and inclusive growth is only strengthened by social policy that enables people to overcome the barriers to work,” Ms Hatfield Dodds said.

Ms Hatfield Dodds said that UnitíngCare Australia is committed to seeking innovative ways to help address inequality.

“An election year is a good time to ‘re-set the policy sails’ to ensure a decent life for all Australians into the future,” she said.

The UnitingCare network is one of Australia’s largest providers of social services, operating across rural, remote and urban areas, providing assistance to one in eight Australians each year, and employing 40,000 staff, supported by 30,000 volunteers across 1,600 sites.